The England back row entered a new era this past weekend, as Harlequins hard hitter Chandler Cunningham-South partnered up on the flanks with Tom Curry of Sale Sharks for the first time. Cunningham-South has emerged ahead of Sam Underhill in the current pecking order, with the 21-year-old shining in the narrow defeat to the All Blacks at the Allianz Stadium.
Cunningham-South’s stand-out moment was when he nailed New Zealand lock Tupou Vaa’i with a monstrous hit, that forced the lock to spill the ball in contact. This garnered an immense reaction from the England fans in attendance, with the serge of adrenaline pumping up England’s pack to win the following scrum penalty.
“It was, a very, very cool feeling.” Cunningham-South said in a recent England media session. “I think I got a bit excited after that, I was smiling. And then I think when the crowd started getting involved, that was pretty cool. Got the boys going too.”
“I won’t take anything away from the front row there. I’ll give that one to the front row. I think they just backed it up, and you want to make sure there’s positives on positives. And they went and backed it up after and got us that scrum penalty.”
Cunningham-South certainly relished the opportunity to start in the back row with Tom Curry, as the Sale Shark made his long awaited return to England action. You would have to rewind the clock back to the 2023 Rugby World Cup bronze medal match for Curry’s previous involvement in an England jersey, as the flanker was sidelined for the majority of the following season with a career-threatening hip injury.
Thankfully, Tom Curry is now back at his very best, with Cunningham-South excited to bind up with the Sale man this Saturday. Cunningham-South and Curry have retained their starting jerseys in Steve Borthwick’s England team, and are ready to bring the fight to the Wallabies. Cunningham-South praised Curry in the week, calling the 26-year-old a ‘beast’ of a back row.
“Yeah, it was cool (to play with him). He’s a beast. He works hard, he hits hard as well. Feel him in training sometimes as well. He works hard, just like all the back rows do, to be fair, the skill set is crazy. They get over the ball, sometimes I just don’t even know how they do it, flexible guys!”
Tom Curry is delighted to see how well Cunningham-South is progressing in a relatively short space of time. The Harlequin only made his debut for England in the opening match of the 2024 Six Nations (away to Italy), and has established himself as the go-to option for the six shirt. Drawing attention the effort he’s put in at the set-piece, Curry told the media from England’s training camp in Surrey.
“For me, seeing him really step up was really impressive. The stuff you saw, the physicality and the big hits, they are kind of like the end process. But the whole week, Steve (Borthwick) was brilliant with him in terms of his line-out role, technique-wise and getting him up to speed knowledge-wise.
“He has made so many steps with that, which people probably don’t see. I think there were only a handful of line-outs but he’s been brilliant with learning that six role. If he excels at that, then with Ben Earl and the other sevens and eights, we can focus on what we do well.
“So, I am really impressed with how he (Cunningham-South) has really got his head down, but also how he has stayed true to himself. He brought the best out of himself and hopefully gets better and better.”
Curry was withdrawn just before the hour mark, with his twin brother Ben replacing him off the substitutes bench. Despite the frustration of the narrow defeat to New Zealand, the Curry brothers shared the special memory, in what was their first shared England match with them both in the squad.
“We still managed to get a photo together! We managed to enjoy it obviously. The frustration is losing in an England shirt; that is very frustrating. But Steve has re-framed it this week and we have Australia coming to Twickenham so it’s exciting.”
Curry admitted that it has been difficult to deal with the tough loss to the All Blacks, as England were winning by eight points with 20 minutes to go at the Allianz. England’s search for a win at home against New Zealand continues on from 2012, with Curry keen to turn the focus on to the Wallabies, after taking some down time away from rugby this past Sunday.
“It’s tough until you start training again. I’m lucky I had my girlfriend with me, we got to spend Sunday together so that was the distraction I needed. If I started talking about rugby, she would pull me back in line! I’m lucky I’m surrounded by good people.
“The review with Steve was concise with good points about how we move into this week. I think that is a good way of understanding how it went wrong, because obviously it did go wrong. But then we have to re-frame it for this week and turn it into our focus on Australia.”
England have a far better run of results against Australia than compared to the All Blacks, with a polarising record of recent fixtures. Whilst England tend to achieve just one win against New Zealand per decade, the Red Rose more often than not comes out on top against the Wallabies. Australia have only beaten England twice in the past 11 years, with the first Test of the 2022 Summer tour being the first and latest Wallabies win since the 2015 Rugby World Cup pool stages.
Whilst Curry recognises the record, he could only comment upon the matches he’d been involved in. Curry played in the first half of the Perth defeat to Australia from two years ago, but a concussion kept him out of action for the two following England victories. The Sale man understands how England need a full 80 minute performance if they want to continue their impressive form against the Wallabies, who will be lead by their new head coach Joe Schmidt.
“I can only talk about what I was involved in, especially the summer. The last quarter, we as players definitely have to stand up. It’s about the full 80 minutes. There’s stuff we were doing in the last quarter that we weren’t doing in the first 60. We can’t be making excuses; as players we have to step up and be more consistent.”
“As players, we need to step up. We obviously made mistakes and we’ve recognised that. It is frustrating but we just have to step up. I think discipline-wise, we let ourselves down. At 40 minutes, it was one penalty (conceded), 60 minutes, two penalties, then at 80 minutes it had built up. A, it was three points, but B, it gave them (New Zealand) territory and they are pretty clinical. That is a big factor.”
“That’s the beauty of it; we have to find a way. There’s nothing coming externally that we haven’t heard. We’ve had all the right messages. We as players need to step up. There are no excuses.”
